We shared with you how to write a business plan. We also talked about how important it is for every business, especially if you’re looking for funding or potential investors. Business plans are considered the roadmap of any business, so it’s just natural that you need it to find an investor or grow your business into a profitable venture.
What Makes A Killer Business Plan?
Is there some secret sauce to a killer business plan? Not really.
But what makes a good, a killer business plan that will make investors fund your business or give you the ability to quit your day job? It’s not that really complicated, however, your business plan must have these basic elements: executive summary, business description, market analysis, competitive analysis, organization/management, product, marketing/sales plan, and financial projection (read more about the basics here).
Samples of Killer Business Plan
Writing a business plan is no easy task, it takes a lot of time, effort and most importantly, research. On the other hand, not all business plans are created equal. There are bad ones (you don’t want that, trust me – see our do’s and don’ts) but, there are also good ones that just really stand out, here are some samples of business plans and what you can learn from them:
- I’ll Be Denim
A sample from Shopify, I’ll Be Denim – a fictional organic denim and apparel company has all the elements a business plan needs. It’s concise while still having all the relevant and vital information. See how they classified their target market:
- Nivea For Men
In this marketing plan for Nivea For Men, they added visuals to illustrate their data and also to prevent it from being too text heavy. Use of visual presentation is an advantage for a business plan. It makes the data much easier to analyze and to look at.
- Airport Cafe
Let’s have a look at the business plan of Airport Cafe. In their marketing/competitor analysis, they provided a background and presented their data. Notice where they obtained the figures in their market analysis. They collected the data through the Airport Authorities which can be considered as a good source since they have an overview and information about the people in the airport.
- Fresin Fries
In their competitive comparison, they listed out all their advantages against their competitors. They also provided a table which gave an overview of what their competitors are offering against their product/services. This a good practice. A table can easily help identify the data instead of reading long texts which can be quite tedious to investors.
- Dr. Steven Gedeon
This isn’t exactly a sample of a business plan, however, Dr. Steven Gedeon, PhD, MBA at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management talked about what a good business plan looks like. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Gedeon has been on both sides of the entrepreneurship game. In this video he shared some great insights about business plan writing.
Now that we’ve seen a few good business plan, take what’s good and apply it to your own plan. As Tim Berry, a business planner and angel investor said, “Although you definitely need a business plan to find investors, your plan alone–no matter how good it is–isn’t enough to attract investors. (It’s a start.) The investor’s decision still depends on a lot of other factors. By itself, your plan is like an automobile engine–the car won’t go anywhere without it. But the engine alone isn’t enough to make the car go, and you need to recognize this from the beginning.”
Looking for more help to create your first business plan? Check out my book Day 1: A Practical Guide to Launching Your New Business now!
